Thursday, 14 July 2016

Jeremy Corbyn and the Politics of Authenticity

“.....the most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love”- Ben Okri, cited by Jeremy Corbyn at his acceptance speech after being elected leader of the Labour party in September 2015.

“Can we still seek the lost angels / Of our better natures? … We dream
of a new politics / That will renew the world / Under their weary
suspicious gaze.”- Ben Okri, A New Dream of Politics

We cry for a politics of authenticity – that is what human beings want
more than anything else – but when we have a figure like that, we are
conflicted as well … We need to ask ourselves what we really want from
them.”- Ben Okri .

When Okri talks about Corbyn in terms of the 'politics of
authenticity', it could be that Corbyn is indeed authentic in the same
way Chavez was, a figure Gabriel Garcia Marquez though was ambiguous in
genuinely wanting social change to benefit the people and yet also
somewhat of a populist who traded on hatred of the USA.

When Corbyn opposed Britain's 'humanitarian interventions', he
opposed them all on the basis of 'anti-war' stances and
'anti-imperialism' rather than even trying to look at the complexities
of such conflicts as those in Yugoslavia and Kosovo where
non-intervention had arguably meant civilian deaths.

As regards integrity, many politicians within Britain's Parliamentary
system are like actors who position themselves as theatrical
impersonations of the types of being that appeal to the section of the
electorate they wish to woo. There is, indeed, a market in Britain for
'anti-war' activism among students and radical London.

London as a microcosm of the globe has always harboured messianic
radicals who believe that what happens 'here' is a sign of what will
change the world later. Corbyn is heir to those traditions through his
Islington fiefdom with his Latino wives and interest in 1970s liberation
movements and threats of fascist coups.

Corbyn is courting intellectuals and writers like Okri for similar
reasons why Chavez tried to woo Marquez as did Castro. It reflects a
genuine interest in radical idea of a better world but also adds to his
image as a Latin American style radical Líder Máximo directly and
democratically ranged against the imperial order.

What relevance any of this sort of politics has for Britain, it is
hard to say. Certainly London increasingly appears to be a city
dominated by oligarchs and disconnected corrupt rentier elites rather
like in Brazilian mega-cities. The settled middle class life it once had
has vanished out more into the provinces.

Brexit too could dramatically polarise politics should Theresa May's
new government fail to deliver on the verdict of the referendum, an
economic recession kick in and Corbyn assert greater control over the
Labour party to the point where the liberal-left centrists either split,
resign or are purged by mass deselections.

In such circumstances, in a dysfunctional two and a bit Parliamentary
Party system, Corbyn and Momentum, fired by street protests, strikes
and agitation in Britain's cities could generate a tack of rightist
Conservatives towards UKIP positions. Corbyn would be portrayed more and
more as national security threat.

After all, with a more unstable global landscape, the rise of China
in the Far East, of Russia reasserting control over its Near Abroad-and
so gas and oil pipeline routes the West wants-Corbyn's challenge to NATO
and to Trident would be seen as the ultimate systemic threat and so
repressive police measures used to crush him.

May comes across as a snooping authoritarian obsessed with
spying,monitoring and 'taking control'. As there seems to be no end in
sight to the geopolitical struggles over pipeline routes and resources
in the Middle East, there can be no end to British military intervention
and so the threat of Islamist blowback.

With the migrant crisis unfolding further an the EU fracturing,
Corbyn would be demonised by the Murdoch media in particular as
precisely the sort of Salvador Allende martyr figure he already envisions
himself as being. As a terrorist sympathiser. The scene would be set for
his forcible overthrow by 2020.

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About the Blog

This blog is mostly about the New Great Game for resources across the globe, the impact of oil and gas dependency upon both Britain and the oil rich nations, the purported interconnections between foreign policy and terrorism, the growth of Islamism and the mendacious nature of much 'Public Diplomacy'. It also seeks to anticipate the forthcoming threats to world peace by discerning the true nature of the new emerging psychopathologies that come with the struggle over diminishing natural resources, global warming, proxy conflicts and the prospect of civilisational collapse in regions such as the Middle East, Central Africa and the Maghreb.